Tom Lowenhaupt wrote:
> Gregbo, do I detect some sarcasm here?
No. I really want to help you, but I need to understand some aspects
of your user base and what they are trying to do online. I have a number
of possible suggestions, but I need to know more about your user base.
How do I get in touch with other people in the Communisphere project?
Could you give me the address of your listserv?
Regarding distance insensitivity, I tend to disagree. In fact, I have
seen several communities grow up with distinct local characteristics
over the net. This was true even back when I was an MIT undergraduate
in the early 1980s, where people would "cluster" around the various
computer centers on campus. Each had their distinct characteristics.
They were all networked (some on the ARPAnet), so there was interaction
among communities, but also distinctions between them.
If you're familiar with the works of Sherry Turkle, a lot of her early
research in online activity was based on observations of MIT computer
culture.
--gregbo